2024 Income Tax - get ready!

FOR RETURNING CLIENTS ONLY.  Anyone else interested in tax service this year should call our office to get started.

FILING YOUR 2024 INCOME TAX RETURNS
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW
PRE-TAX SEASON: GETTING LINED UP

TAX SEASON TIMELINE

1. Accumulating all of your tax documents for submission to our office is your first step!

Fact: 80% of taxpayers will have all of their tax documents made available to them by January 31st 2025. These tax documents include:
 W2, all varieties of 1099 for social security, retirement, self employment, dividends and interest, H S A accounts, college savings plans, cancellation of debt, and any one of the plethora of 1099s you could receive.

The other 20% likely have a brokerage account to report capital gains and losses, interest, and dividend income. These should be made available to you by February 15th, and you should check your account online to download the 1099 Consolidated Statement.

Aside from the tax docs you’ll receive, you may have to prepare something for your special activity:

1. A small self-employment business, or received 1099NEC for your side hustle (reporting on Schedule C)

2. A farm (Schedule F)

3. A rental property (Schedule E)

If this sounds like you, you have two choices to prepare to report your special activity above:

1. Complete the appropriate schedule found in the 2024 tax organizer and submit it with the rest of your tax docs. The tax organizer is found in your portal (see separate page all about the portal) anytime you want to download it, or by coming to our office anytime MF 9-5 to pick up a copy we will print for you on the spot. Once completed you’ll print it and give it back to us along with your tax documents.

2. Schedule an appointment at www.YSincometax.com with Matthew Cole CPA to help you put all this together or call the office to ask for help . Every year it’s common I help anyone report, for example, their Airbnb activity or their Schedule C. FYI This takes time and active coordination between us, and beyond tax prep fees, you will be billed reasonable fees in 15min increments for meeting and worktime to accomplish this goal for you.

** If you have OTHER SPECIAL reporting for tax that requires additional information or attention please simply contact our office and we’ll let you know what we need. Examples could include sales of business assets or other property, solar credits or EV credits, vested stock sales from your employer, or any other less-typical reporting requirement.

2. NOW THAT YOU HAVE IT ALL TOGETHER………there are two ways to get this information to our office:

1. Use your computer (not your phone – it’s so much easier) to scan all documents and upload to the portal (read about the portal on the next page).

2. Drop off anytime at our office in person M-F 9-5 or 24/7 into the steel locked box outside our office door.

This year we will ask you to complete and submit a BASIC INFO SHEET that will include, your name and spouse name and address, bank account and routing number, confirm your DL information, confirm your estimated payments, if you moved, ………..we’ll need this too. It’ll be in the portal and you can complete ahead of time, or on the spot when you drop your documents off.

3. NOW THAT WE HAVE ALL YOUR DOCUMENTS……..THE ROAD TO COMPLETION.

After submitting everything to our office, wait patiently for Matthew Cole CPA to prepare your income tax returns. My goal is always to complete returns in less than a week. However we’ve been communicating, we’ll reach out to let you know everything is finished and ready for your review and signature. At this point, all returns will be viewable online in your portal account. You can see it all there before you come to our office to finalize the process. 

4.Your tax forms are ready to be filed, we’ve reached out. Now you choose:

Option A:
Come anytime, no appointment needed. Dave will have your blue tax folder and review the results at the window at our office. Sign the efile authorization and pay basic rates for tax prep services.

**After 14 years in the village, I believe many of my clients only need this level of service and should not need to pay extra for a meeting unless you need to ask about special circumstances or have specific tax questions that require a bit more time to explain. This is 100% up to you.

Option B:
Choose to meet Matthew Cole CPA to talk taxes. Go to ysincometax.com to schedule a time and duration that works best for you. Seniors, just call the office if you’d like Dave to schedule for you. Time with Matt is billed in reasonable 15min increments and added to basic tax prep fees.

Please note: Only under special circumstances will I file returns for taxpayers unable to physically sign e-file authorization. Out of state clients will not be able to digitally sign to file this year. In an effort to provide the best possible service I am only serving clients we can see in person at least once; if only to sign e-file authorization. Please contact our office if this affects you to make arrangements.

5.After Filing

Irs.gov/refunds - Have your Adjusted Gross Income handy – it’s on page 1 of your 1040.

State/SD - These are processed once the Federal return is processed.

RITA/Local - Always processed independently and fairly quickly.

*Finally, if you should discover something you forgot, or if you believe something was filed incorrectly, reach out to Dave and we will tackle this in the moment, or after tax season.

All about the CLIENT TAX PORTAL – What it is, why it’s good, how to login, etc.

While you don’t have to use the portal, you may discover it’s a useful timesaver for many reasons. You can:

1. Upload your scanned tax documents without physically dropping them off.

2. Communicate with our office in the portal messenger securely (not via email).

3. View your income tax returns before you come to the office to sign and file.

4. View and download a history of your tax filings – handy when you apply for a loan or FAFSA.

Essentially, if you’re basically computer savvy and have a scanner, you can do everything from home and come here only once to sign and file, as well has have access to all of the tax returns we’ve prepared.

Finally, I recommend you use a computer and not your phone.

In your portal account you’ll find three documents for 2024: The Basic Info Sheet, your Personal Tax Organizer, and a page detailing our fee structure this year.

HOW TO ENTER YOUR PERSONAL TAX PORTAL

1. If we have your email address (and we should), you will receive an email soon (if not already) inviting you to activate your portal account. If we don’t have your email address, call or write us to let us know what it is. The subject of the email is: “You Have a New Portals Account with Matthew Cole CPA LLC.” This email contains a link that expires (for security) 2 weeks after we send it. You’ll click this link to start the activation steps below. If 2 weeks has passed and your link has expired, call our office immediately and we will send a new activation link to your email address. 

2. The email will tell you what your username is.

3. You click the blue SIGN IN button to go to the portal page to create your secret password.

a. Enter the social security number of the primary taxpayer (not the spouse).

b. Create a password and enter it again to confirm.

c. Click submit.

4. Now you’re at the sign in page. Use the username you were given and password you just created. Login and you’re done!

5. To access the portal from now on, go to www.YSIncometax.com and use the Client Sign In fields to login. 

a. If you forgot your username and password, there’s a link for that on this page.

Any questions about the portal please contact our office. You are not required to use the portal and can come to our office in person for everything, but for many I believe using the portal is a lot easier. 😊 Totally up to you!~

HOW TO COMMUNICATE WITH OUR OFFICE

Our office becomes a hive of activity very suddenly in late January and continues through the end of April. Because we want to serve the community without operating a “tax store” we hope you’ll use any of these methods to communicate with our office:

Most Preferred Methods: Email: Reception @ YSincometax.com

Portal Messages: Login to portal via www.YSincometax.com

Phone: 937-751-7375

In person M_F, 9-5 for quick questions Dave should be able to answer. No appt needed.

If you’ve been working directly with Matthew Cole CPA – Matt @ YSincometax.com

Do not use these below methods at all:

Anything on Facebook.

Friends – pls do not call or text my personal cell phone.

**Whatever your preferred method to communicate……………….. that is ALSO OUR preferred method to communicate………….that’s how we will communicate!